William Blake
William Blake
William Blakewas an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. His prophetic works have been said to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led one contemporary art critic to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPhilosopher
Date of Birth28 November 1757
Do what you will, this world's a fiction and is made up of contradiction.
Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.
If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
The man who never alters his opinions is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.
I went to the Garden of Love, And saw what I never had seen: A Chapel was built in the midst, Where I used to play on the green. And the gates of this Chapel were shut, And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door; So I turn'd to the Garden of Love, That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves, And tomb-stones where flowers should be: And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds, And binding with briars, my joys & desires.
To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour.
I do not like the man's face. He looks as if he will live to be hanged.
The merchants are rich enough;Can they not help themselves?
The merchants are rich enough;Can they not help themselves?
When Sir Joshua Reynolds died / All Nature was degraded; / The King dropped a tear in the Queen's ear, / And all his pictures faded.
Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night.
Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists
Jesus & his apostles & disciples were all artists
Struggling in my father's hands, Striving against my swaddling bands, Bound and weary, I thought best To sulk upon my mother's breast.